During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 focus was highlighted on a new type of weapon system within an American military aid package, loitering munitions. Weapons that possess performances and capabilities that we are not used to handle.
This thesis investigates and analyses the observations from a tactical game conducted by one of Sweden’s Ranger Battalions and the Swedish Total Defense Research Institute. Using a systems theory approach, it evaluates the military utility and tactical principles of loitering munitions to determine if they provide tactical benefits and military utility in deep operations against a high-technology enemy.
The results shows that loitering munition provide tactical advantages for military units and the military utility is graded high. The thesis also shows that you can observe a tactical game and further analyze the result with the purpose to get a deeper tactical understanding of the benefits of the weapon system before implementation.